Everything was going according to plan until the train had been moving for about twenty minutes.
Then the air-conditioning stopped.
At first, nobody seemed particularly concerned. A few passengers fanned themselves with newspapers, while others opened their water bottles.
But as the minutes passed, the temperature inside the carriage climbed.
The windows couldn’t be opened, every seat was occupied, and the air began to feel heavy and stale.
A little boy near the front complained that he was hot. His mother tried to distract him with a toy.
An elderly man loosened his collar and wiped his forehead.
I took a sip of water and hoped the problem would be fixed soon.
Then the man sitting beside me let out an enormous sigh.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
I glanced in his direction.
He looked to be around forty, with short hair, a large travel bag, and the impatient expression of someone who believed the entire world was inconveniencing him personally.